Petronas could overhaul Qatar in flexible LNG

Kuala Lumpur : Consultants Wood Mackenzie reckon that by 2020, Malaysia has the potential to be the largest supplier of flexible LNG to the global market, larger even than Qatar. The supply capacity of Malaysia’s Petronas is growing through new capacity additions in eastern Malaysia as well as Canada, offtake agreements with other suppliers and projects such as GLNG in Australia.

Its supply potential could grow by over 55%, from 27m tonnes per annum (mmtpa) in 2013 to 42 mmtpa in 2022, Wood Mackenzie said in a report yesterday. Some of this new capacity is committed to buyers, but some is not. In addition, some of its existing commitments to buyers will expire over the next 10 years.

Wood Mackenzie’s analysis suggests that Petronas's flexible LNG volume will grow from 2.5 mmtpa in 2013 to 26 mmtpa in 2022. By contrast Wood Mackenzie estimates that Qatar’s flexible LNG volumes in 2013 were 20 mmtpa. Whether Qatar or Malaysia will have the biggest flexible volume in 2022 will depend on their contracting strategy in the interim. Wood Mackenzie’s Asia gas research analyst, Chong Zhi Xin, said, "In addition to challenging Qatar, Malaysia’s growing volume of uncontracted LNG will provide strong supply competition for new LNG projects, such as from the US, Canada and East Africa.” [27/08/14]